McConnell: Budget Deal Enabled Stronger National Defense

Conservatives have criticized congressional GOP leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for what they say was caving on the $1.1 trillion budget deal, but McConnell said Sunday the deal was necessary to ensure national security.

"Republicans felt like we needed in response to the foreign policy threat we've been talking about to spend more on defense," McConnell said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

"In order to achieve that we had to work with a Democratic president who wanted to spend more on the domestic side. If left up to me, we wouldn't have added that much back, but nobody is a dictator here. We can't do things one-party-only in a time of divided government. There are other important things done in the context of the overall bill."

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is leading some presidential polls in Iowa, accused McConnell of telling a "simple lie" from the Senate floor. But McConnell, who has endorsed his fellow Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, said he has no interested in getting into the presidential debate.

"I tried to tune out the presidential race and do the job that the American people elected the new majority to do," he said.

McConnell has criticized front-runner Donald Trump's proposal for a moratorium on all Muslim immigration, saying it is "completely inconsistent with American values."

"We're not going to follow that suggestion that this particular candidate made," McConnell told host Jake Tapper. "It would prevent the president of Afghanistan from coming to the United States. The king of Jordan couldn't come to the United States. Obviously we're not going to do that."

Conservatives have criticized congressional GOP leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for what they say was caving on the $1.1 trillion budget deal, but McConnell said Sunday the deal was necessary to ensure national security.